Sajid Raina
Ganderbal, Mar 21: Hundreds of people on Friday morning attended the last rites of former MLA and BJP leader Faqeer Mohammad Khan in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal. Khan allegedly died by suicide after he shot himself dead at his official residence in Srinagar’s Tulsi Bagh on Thursday.
Hundreds of people, including several leaders, gathered for Khan’s last rites in Kangan where he was laid to rest.
The party leaders in J&K saw him as best chance to make inroads into the Valley. However, his death marked an end of that hope, leaving BJP’s future in the region somehow uncertain, according to many political observers.
Hailing from Gurez valley’s Tulail area, Khan’s political journey saw him shift affiliations but never step away from electoral battles. He won as an Independent from Gurez in 1996, later contested assembly elections unsuccessfully on a Congress ticket in 2008 and 2014, and eventually joined the BJP in 2020.
When Assembly elections were held in J&K last year after a decade, BJP saw him as the best bet.
The party’s top brass, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, campaigned in Gurez, signaling how crucial the seat was for them. But despite a high-pitched campaign, Khan lost to National Conference’s Nazir Khan aka Nazir Gurezi by over 1,100 votes. The BJP’s first real chance at a breakthrough in the Valley slipped away.
“He stood where many wouldn’t,” said a BJP leader who had worked closely with him. “He carried the party’s hopes in a place where winning was never easy.”
In Tulail, where Khan spent most of his life, people recalled his persistence. “No matter the result, he was always in the fight,” said an elder from Dawar.
“He was always among us, whether we voted for him or not,” said Mohammad Yusuf, an elder from the region. “He fought battles that most wouldn’t dare to.”
Khan was always seen as the BJP’s bridge in Kashmir,” said a senior politician. “When his son Ajaz Raja won the DDC elections from Tulail in 2020, securing one of BJP’s only two victories in the Valley, it felt like the party had finally found a way in. He wasn’t just a candidate; he was the entry point BJP had been searching for.
A senior BJP leader confirmed that Khan was seen as the party’s only real entry into Kashmir during the 2024 Assembly elections.
He said that the BJP high command was confident that Gurez would be their breakthrough seat, with Khan as their strongest contender. “To bolster his chances, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh personally campaigned for him in Gurez, a rare move that underscored Khan’s importance for the party. However, despite the heavy push, he lost by a narrow margin,” he said. (KNO)
